Novi man sentenced to life in prison for killing his family

Lakshminivasa Nerusu is lead off to jail by two Oakland County Sheriff Deputies after a guilty verdict in Pontiac on Thursday, June 12 2014. Nerusu, who fled to India after the 2008 slayings of his wife and two children in their suburban Detroit home has been convicted of first-degree murder in their deaths. Thirty-seven-year-old Jayalakshmi Nerusu, the couple’s 14-year-old daughter Tejasvi and their 12-year-old son Siva, were killed Oct. 13, 2008. Police in Novi checking on the family’s welfare found their bludgeoned bodies two weeks later. (AP Photo/Detroit News, Charles V. Tines)

“I have never presided over a trial where someone cold-bloodedly in a single swipe murdered their own children,” Grant told Nerusu, according to the Associated Press. “I think you must be wholly, completely and vilely selfish.

“That doesn’t make you mentally ill, that makes you an evil human being.”

The bodies were not found until about two weeks later, when a relative who sensed something was wrong contacted police after failing to get in touch with the family.

“What was most chilling ... is the video of your son getting on the school bus at the end of the school day,” Grant said, according to the Associated Press.

“And all I could think about was: ‘Your mother’s already dead. Your sister’s already dead and you’ll be dead in 10 minutes.’”

At one point in his career, Nerusu had made as much as $100 per hour as a computer programmer. But he was unemployed in the time leading up to the killings and had lost about $100,000 in the 2008 stock market crash. Officials said those financial struggles were causing problems within the family.

Prosecutors said Nerusu felt as though a low-paying job was beneath him. His car was repossessed and the family was on the verge of losing its home.

“Don’t ever say that you were a parent to them,” Grant told Nerusu, according to the Associated Press. “Because they were two bright lights that you completely snuffed out because you wanted to get back to India where you could have been someone more important.

“Because what I think, sir, is this, you wanted to wipe out your whole family and start over again.”